Indians win, but weather rules again

PRATT — With weather like this, it’s only fitting that Iola remains on the winning path with its water-tight defense.
The state champion Post 15 Indians played error-free baseball to open the AA American Legion Mid-States Regional Tournament Thursday evening. Their opponents from Viroqua, Wisc., did not.
Three Viroqua errors, coupled with the Indians’ Trent Latta’s warhorse effort from the mound, gave Iola a 4-1 win.
The victory puts the Indians in the winners bracket to face LaCrescent, Minn., which edged Grafton, N.D., 3-2 in its opening round affair.
When the teams play again was the pertinent question.
A second straight night of steady rain left Pratt’s Smoky Ford Field at the Green Sports Complex unplayable Friday.
Plans were to resume the tournament this morning, but shortening the games to five innings in order to allow teams to play more than twice in a day. As of Friday afternoon, the Iola-LaCrescent game was scheduled to start this afternoon at 1 p.m.
“It’s unfortunate to have this rain, because it looks like the teams out here are pretty evenly matched,” Iola head coach Roland Weir said. “It’d be nice to play this out on a dry field to see who comes out on top.”
At any rate, Iola proved it can be tough to beat on a wet track, too.
The Indians were flawless in the field, particularly up the middle, where second baseman Drew Faulhaber snared everything hit his way.
“And we kept him busy,” Weir said with a laugh.

IT WAS anything but easy.
Latta repeatedly worked himself out of jams with minimal damage. Viroqua pieced together six hits and seven walks against Latta, but could never come up with the clutch hit.
He stranded 11 runners in his 134-pitch effort.
Latta struck out Viroqua’s Brandon Mickelson with the bases loaded in the first to end that scoring threat.
He then induced a fly out by his pitching counterpart, Mitch Stalsberg, with runners on first and second to end the fourth. Viroqua loaded the bases again in the bottom of the sixth before Latta retired third-place hitter Tyler Trautsch with a grounder to Faulhaber.
Conversely, Iola had its hands full with Stalsberg, who had full command of his fastball and a wide assortment of breaking balls.
“Neither team hit the cover off the ball, especially us,” Weir said. “Their guy is a great pitcher and was able to locate all four pitches. And we struggle against lefthanders anyway.”
Iola was limited to three hits against the Viroqua southpaw, although Levi Ashmore’s leadoff single turned into a run after he advanced to second and third on wild pitches and scored on Mason Coons’ one-out grounder.
Zack Trautsch, Viroqua’s leadoff hitter who reached base in all four plate appearances, tied the score at 1-1 on his single in the bottom of the third.
Stalsberg was in cruise control until the top of the fifth.
Faulhaber earned a one-out walk before Eric Heffern blasted a shot back up the middle that deflected off Stalsberg’s glove for an infield single.
Ashmore followed with another grounder up the middle that turned into a fielder’s choice, moving Faulhaber to third.
Errors on consecutive plays turned the tables.
Mickelson, Viroqua catcher, tried to pick Faulhaber off third base with Latta at the plate, but instead threw the ball into left field for a run-scoring error.
Two pitches later, Latta smacked a hard grounder to Viroqua shortstop Tyler Gabrielson, who was high on his throw to first, allowing Ashmore to score.
Heffern’s hustle accounted for Iola’s fourth run two innings later.
His one-out grounder in the top of the seventh went through Gabrielson’s legs for Viroqua’s third error of the game.
Heffern was still at first when Latta punched a ground ball single to right.
Heffern, at the urging of third-base coach Sherman Ashmore, never stopped at third. He continued toward home, forcing a high throw to the plate and scoring without a tag.
“Sherman is aggressive with his coaching, and we’re aggressive on the basepaths,” Weir said. “We’re going to force the action.”
Stalsberg took the loss despite striking out nine in six innings and allowing just one earned run.

WITH EIGHT teams apparently evenly matched, the tournament may well hinge on the squad that avoids mistakes, Weir noted.
The game was a nice diversion for the Indians, who have had to cope with rainy weather since arriving in Pratt. After all, storms a week ago meant sharing the state championship with Westmoreland-Rock Creek because the final day of action was washed away.
“It was a good start for us,” Weir said. “The way last week ended left a bitter taste in our mouths. We’re hungry.”
Thursday’s games were to have started in the morning, but were pushed back to the evening because of a drenching downpour the night before.
The first of four games started at 6. Iola’s game ended shortly after 10 o’clock, and that was just the midway point of the first round. Host Pratt’s game against Flandeau, S.D., started after midnight and ended at about 2:30 a.m. Friday.
The rains returned shortly thereafter.
In other first-round action, Flandeau defeated Pratt 14-3, while Las Vegas, Nev., edged Waupun, Wisc. 5-4.